Previously, many granular products and some liquids have been shipped and stored in large bulk bags which may contain as much as a ton or more of material. Some of these bulk bags are flexible and when empty can be folded to a generally flat condition. One such flexible bag is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,236.
These flexible bags have generally rectangular ends interconnected by generally rectangular sidewalls and when filled can be stacked one on top of another. For some applications the bags are made of a woven fabric and for other applications, a plastic film material. For some applications, and particularly for storing liquids, a bag of a water impervious plastic film material is received in and reinforced and protected by a bag of a woven fabric. Usually, these bags have a spout in one or both ends for filling and emptying the bags.
Because the bulk bags may contain as much as a ton or more of material, they are generally quite large. They are thus somewhat difficult to handle and the insertion of a bag or liner of a plastic film material into an outer bulk bag, to provide an interior liner for the fabric bulk bag, is labor intensive. Two people are usually required to insert a liner into a bulk bag with one person holding the bulk fabric bag and the other inserting and aligning the liner within the fabric bag. The process is inefficient, time consuming and costly.